North Sydney Girls' High School (abbreviated as NSGHS, more commonly known as NSG) is a government-funded single-sex academically selective secondary day school for girls, located in Crows Nest, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Established in 1914, the school caters for approximately 910 students from Year 7 to Year 12. Admission to the school is based entirely on academic results through the Selective High School Placement Test undertaken by students in Year 6. In 2025, North Sydney Girls was ranked fourth among all high schools in Sydney.
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History
North Sydney Girls' High School was officially founded in 1914 with an enrolment of 194 students. The school was originally located on the corner of Hazelbank Road and the Pacific Highway, where Cammeraygal High School's junior campus is now situated. By the 1980s, it was felt that the site could no longer meet the needs of the school, and years of intense lobbying for improved facilities followed. After the Government of New South Wales decided to close Crows Nest Boys High School, the site was earmarked for North Sydney Girls High with the move to its current location, following a $6 million building and renovations project occurring in December 1993.
Academics
Enrolments
North Sydney Girls is an academically selective high school; admission to the school for Year 7 is determined by results in the Selective High Schools test, which is open to all Year 6 students in NSW. A small number of students from other high schools are accepted into years 8 to 12, with applications made to the school to sit for an entrance exam.
Award system
At North Sydney Girls High School, awards are given based on academic performance, sport performance, service to school and other merits across all years.
Academic results
In 2001, The Sun-Herald ranked North Sydney Girls High School first in Australia's top ten girls' schools, based on the number of its alumnae mentioned in the Who's Who in Australia. In 2022, North Sydney Girls High School ranked as the fourth high school in the state, based on the percentage of exams sat that achieved a Distinguished Achievers (DA).
Generally, around 20-30% of students earn ATAR ranks between 99-99.95.
Co- and extracurricular activities
NSGHS offers a diverse range of extracurricular activities.
Music and drama
NSGHS has a theatresports troupe, junior drama ensemble, Year 10 drama night, and various clubs available to seniors.
Instrumental ensembles and bands include the advanced string ensemble, stage (jazz) band, jazz ensemble, concert band, symphony orchestra, wind orchestra, wind ensemble, and beginner band. Choirs and vocal ensembles include Year 7 choir, junior choir, intermediate choir, combined (NSGHS & NSBHS) choir, senior vocal, and the a capella group.
Sport and outdoor activity
Co-curricular sports include basketball, skiing, hockey, cricket, badminton, table tennis, taekwondo, rowing, kayaking, touch football, water polo, fencing, netball, tennis, and volleyball. NSGHS also has a chess club, dance ensembles, and a cadet program at Marist Catholic College North Shore, and has had students participate in the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme.
Notable alumnae
Academic
Dame Valerie Beral – breast cancer epidemiologist
Anna Katherine Donald – Rhodes Scholar (1989)
Dame Janet Ritterman – former director of the Royal College of Music in London, from 1993 to 2005.
Entertainment, media and the arts
Benita Collings – Play School presenter
Ruth Cracknell – actress
Ceridwen Dovey – author
Jill Hellyer – author and poet
Elsa Jacoby – actress and soprano
Nathalie Kelley – actress
Nicole Kidman – actress
Samantha Lang – film and theatre director
Catherine Martin – production designer
Lucy Maunder – cabaret and theatre performer
Janet Patterson – costume designer and production designer
Cassandra Pybus – historian and author
Margaret Throsby – ABC Classic FM presenter
Naomi Watts – actress
Wengie – YouTube personality, singer, voice actress
Nina Oyama – comedian, writer, actor, and director
Nagi Maehashi – cook, writer and businesswoman
Politics, public service and the law
Sally Dowling – NSW Director of Public Prosecutions
Shelley Hancock – teacher and parliamentarian; elected as a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly for South Coast (Liberal Party)
Justice Lucy McCallum – Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory
Nancy Grace Augusta Wake resistance fighter known to the Germans as "the White Mouse"; the most decorated woman of World War Two
Sport
Elise Simone Ashton (née Norwood) – Olympic water polo player
Principals
The school principals have been: